SPEAKEASY STAGE has just kicked off its season with perhaps the most daring, intelligently written, and eye-opening production onstage right now in progressive theater circles: HEROES OF THE FOURTH TURNING. The play is a sharp, densely-written theatrical exploration of conservatism, specifically the rift between old and new Catholic conservatives as they debate the hot topics [...]
There's a celebration happening on at least two stages in Boston-- The Emerson Colonial and SpeakEasy Stage and it's just what we need in the shadow of the Ukraine, the pandemic, rising sea levels, and assorted other ills this flesh is heir to. But spring has sprung again and these two shows reinforce joy and [...]
If anyone doubted that Chekhov could be funny and tragic at the same time, keep your eyes on Marianna Bassham in the opening scene-within-a-scene of "The Seagull" and the actress's hilarious, out of her mind, dazed and confused, wounded deer-in-the-headlights mashup of her character Nina's dialogue before knocking over sets and collapsing on the floor. [...]
In the last two weeks I have seen three productions--the most challenging of which I saw less than 24 hours ago and has left me reeling. BLKS which is making its New England premiere at SpeakEasy Stage has tested the limits of my personal boundaries around what I find funny, and what is just too [...]
The Sound Inside, the six-time Tony-nominated, Broadway debut play by Adam Rapp takes us back to the theater and inside the intimate confines of SpeakEasy Stage. There, the inner world of two characters unfolds like a hall of mirrors on an almost empty set. THE SOUND INSIDE is a brilliant play, deafening and quiet, a [...]
SCHOOL GIRLS; Or, The African mean Girls Play by Jocelyn Bioh and directed by Summer L. Williams is now on stage and DO check this one out at SpeakEasy Stage. In their hands, this material about queen bees, their followers, and beauty standards is sharp and funny, with a denouement that stings us awake as [...]
Take one of the most flagrant miscarriages of justice in American history, fueled by racial hatred, hitch it to a minstrel show and you’ve got “The Scottsboro Boys.” Even more painfully relevant now than when it opened on Broadway in 2010, the Tony-nominated musical is having its New England premiere at SpeakEasy Stage Company in [...]
There's a BIG FISH flopping around onstage over at SPEAKEASY. It's a tale by Daniel Wallace born as a novel, morphed into a film by Tim Burton, then blown up to a broadway musical, with a book by John August and music/lyrics by Andrew Lippa--who then scaled it back from 26 actors to 12, and gave it its "intimate" New England premiere. The relationship between a tall tale-telling traveling salesman Edward [...]
What to see now ONSTAGE? There are a slew of good productions playing, and I am going to give you thumbnail reviews to catch up and let you know where I think your time is best spent beginning with the following DO NOT MISS SHOW: --The miraculous BEDLAM'S ST. JOAN presented by Underground Railway Theater and directed by Eric Tucker [...]
Christie Brinkley, Jack Kerouac, Andrew Jackson, and a beloved "war horse"-- all trod the boards this Fall! Here's what I'm looking forward to: WAR HORSE* I saw “the horse” in preview and I still can’t believe that three men, some sticks, and a bunch of metal and fabric brought the animal to life before my [...]
